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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

piles of boxes, piles of fabric

So this is what Amy Jo and I were working on the other day in my sweatshop. We made 9 striped boxes and 2 white and green boxes. These are so much fun! We basically used this pattern, but made all pieces 6" x 6". And instead of adding the timtex for the sides, we used 5.25" squares of thin cardboard, one for each side and one for the bottom. We used all the cereal boxes that I had in my cupboard, and we still ran out. We almost had to dig in the neighbor's recycling buckets at the curb, but we held back. :) The striped fabric is a remnant that I picked up at JoAnn's. It's actually fabric made for outdoor use, like on the patio, but I saw the stripe and knew I needed to make something out of it. It worked out perfectly for this because it is a medium to heavy weight fabric.

I sent several home with her, and right now I am using mine to store my tiny fabric scraps and selvege edges from my fabric on my desk. They make me so happy! I have a feeling that there are many more of these to come.

Carolyn went to Japan last month and she brought back fabric just for me! Isn't that sweet?I love it!!! It couldn't be more perfect.

And I had mentioned that I had a setback in my fabric diet...

...here are the results. I tell you, it's hard to resist a store closing (40% off!!!) fabric sale when your friend is in town visiting. Even though we had 4 kids in tow, it didn't damper the shopping one bit. Obviously.

27 comments:

I love the boxes. Was it easy to get the cardboard in there? When I made mine I used Timtex and I really had to squish it, so now the box is kind of floppy. Cardboard seems like a more sturdy idea.I wouldn't have been able to resist the fabric at 40% off either.

When you shop for fabric, how do you decide howmuch to buy? Much like my regular diet, my fabric diet fluctuates about 70 times while I am in the store. I think a fabric will be good for blocks, then I think I should be 10 meters just in case I love it so much when I get home that I decide I want to make the back out of it too, as well as matching accessories. So should I get 10? or 11 so that I can also make some blocks? And should I just buy the cherry pie or will my regret at having not also gotten the apple be so great that I have to drive back to the store later????? :p

the amount of fabric that I buy varies quite a bit. for awhile I would buy a half or a full yard, but now I usually buy a quarter of a yard of most things, because I like scrappy looking quilts. if it is really good or a great sale I will get either a half yard, a full yard, or else the rest of the bolt. no rhyme or reason at all. :)

the cardboard isn't too bad to work with. you need to leave a pretty big opening on one side-I think we sewed down an inch, backstitched and started again about 1 inch from the bottom, leaving about a 4" opening. that seemed to work pretty well.

Hey! Some of that fabric is the same as what I used in my "happy hour" quilt. :) The turquoise with the pink and yellow in it. And, yes 40% off is hard to resist! What are you planning to store in your pretty new boxes?

This stash stuff is an incurable sickness....Our shop the hop will be starting soon....Lord, give me strength! The boxes are great, and how much fun you two must have had making them. Love the cardboard idea-hate to work with timitex..